A new trade association has been formed by a group of legal marketing executives in the United States to represent those who offer services and products to professional services firms.

Membership of the Coalition of Professional Services Providers is free to join and open to those responsible for management, strategy, sales, marketing, business development and PR from any solution provider that provides goods or services to professional services firms.

According to the firm’s website, revenues will come from events, webinars and general contributions.

Timothy Corcoran, a former president of the Legal Marketing Association, and one of the movers behind the new group, emphasized a desire to move on from what has sometimes been a competitive divide between in-house staff and vendors.

“In the legal segment, most of the professional associations are exclusive by nature, indeed almost combative. Only practicing lawyers can join this group. Only chief marketing officers can join that group. Only buyers of a specific legal technology product are allowed to join a discussion of the product. And so on. Major conferences often have a bias for in-house professionals as presenters. “We must be protected from vendors trying to sell us something,” they say, thereby eliminating input and advice from experts who may have seen 75 implementations of a specific tool or process, in lieu of an in-house practitioner who has deployed the tool only once, in only one organization

What’s missing in some cases is a sense of collaboration, an understanding not just that we need each other, but how best to utilize each other. Clients can be great catalysts for new and innovative ideas, features, and functions, just as vendors and consultants can share time-tested best practices with clients who are behind the learning curve.”